petervisser

Hi Mark,
 
Would you point me to Chuck's method of bending planks. I did not see it in the planking tutorials.
 
Cheers,
 
Peter

Outstanding so far Mark. It's a pleasure to follow along on your build log. Lots of great hints and tips!
 
Peter

Mark. You're a machine! Back in the saddle so soon. Well, good on ya. Doing something you're passionate about and obviously something you are very gifted at. Enjoy your new project and I will sign up for more updates. I love this kit and know you'll do it justice.
Cheers,
Peter

I have finally started work on the masting. Boy, there sure are alot of spars compared to my last model. The foremast went together with lots of trial and error. Mostly error. But once I established a system, the other two masts went together rather easily. All the masting is currently dry fitted so that they can be worked on. There is a ton of fittings that will be glued on piece by piece and careful planning is called for before the spars are stained and painted. I'm pretty excited about getting to this stage. Rigging is one of my favourite phases of the build. Once the spars are fitted, rapid progress can be made with the rigging. Here's a photo of the masts in place...
 

Channels waxed ..
 

 

 

 

 
Next in line is a balcony..
 

 

 

 

 
 

Fantastic work Mark. You are giving this model the treatment it deserves. Thanks for all the great photos too!
 
Peter

Wow! Just a beautiful model you are building. Really one of a kind!
 
Peter

Hi all - got the other side done.  Went much quicker after all the fiddling on the other side.  I also added the PE pieces between the cheeks.  Not sure exactly what they are supposed to represent, but look like some sort of serpent.  The detail was kind of lost when painting them the same color overall, so I painted the recessed areas French blue & the raised areas yellow ochre.  The blue is not nearly as bright in person (or the yellow) - don`t know if it`s the lighting or just the way my phone processes photos
 

 

 
Thanks for looking in-
 
Mark

Well,1 step forward & 2 steps back.  While working on the bow, I managed to break a few strips of the bow grating.  I managed to splice in some small HO scale strips & after some paint touch up it looks ok at arm`s length.
 

 

 
 
Continuing on, I finished up one side of the head rails.  I had to cut a groove in the rails for the covering strips to lay flat, but other than that it was just a lot of filing & sanding to get everything lined up.  Now I have to do it all over again on the other side.
 

 

 
Mark 

I have finally started work on the masting. Boy, there sure are alot of spars compared to my last model. The foremast went together with lots of trial and error. Mostly error. But once I established a system, the other two masts went together rather easily. All the masting is currently dry fitted so that they can be worked on. There is a ton of fittings that will be glued on piece by piece and careful planning is called for before the spars are stained and painted. I'm pretty excited about getting to this stage. Rigging is one of my favourite phases of the build. Once the spars are fitted, rapid progress can be made with the rigging. Here's a photo of the masts in place...
 

After a long hiatus from Cutty Sark, I have finally started on the masting and rigging. This is just a short update as to where I'm at with the project.
 
The first step in this long and involved process is to fabricate the parts that hold the masts together, they being the tops and cross-trees. My old kit had these pieces marked out on sheets of ply which had to be cut out with a scroll saw and fret saw. I cut the pieces out with the scroll saw and then filed and sanded out the pieces to size.
Due to the fact that the tops are less than detailed as marked out on the plywood, I opted to use them as templates. The templates were then used to trace the shapes on thinner sheets so that I could sandwich the gratings in between. I decided to use styrene for the grating as they are a uniform thickness and width and there is no sanding involved for such small and delicate strips. All will be painted white so there won't be an issue with the different materials.
Here are some pics of the initial construction.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the likes gentlemen. I forgot to post a few pic's of the boat conversions. I basically chopped of a portion of the stern to two of the Biliing F167 life boats and then glued on a transom converting a double ender to a squared transom boat. This to me was the easiest solution and now all the boats are to a more correct scale and configured correctly.
Here are some photos of the conversion...
 

Hi All. Well, it's been a while since any serious work has taken place on my model ship bench. I am happy to be back and have resumed work on my CS.
I have finally dealt with the boats that are aboard the Cutty Sark. Two lifeboats and the gig and jolly boat. The kit came with three plastic boats and I realize that they are a serious no-no to some builders. I am not one of those however, and with a coat or two of paint they look way better than anything I could cobble together.
The kit came with 3 boats all described as lifeboats. They were F167 (good) and F405 (not good) it being way to big for the scale of model. I decided to get two more of the F167's and modify them by altering their transoms. That would convert them into a jolly boat and a gig. I added some lifelines to the gunwales of the lifeboats to make them more authentic.
I lashed down the jolly boat and gig but have not done so yet for the lifeboats. They would be in the way when it comes time to set up the shrouds and the rest of the rigging going to the belaying pins. I'll have to tie them down after the rigging is complete.
So here are the results...
 

 

 

Well, the railings are completed. It was a bit of a slog. The first coat of primer took 2 hours to apply to all the railings. Phew. That was a bit much, my neck and back told me. Thereafter I painted them in sections as they still wanted two coats of white. But now they're finished and I am pleased woth the results. Modelling will now take a back seat for a few months as summer is arriving and the outdoors and the yard call for some attention instead. I hope to putter with the ships boats during rainy days, whenever they happen. Cheers guys!
 

Hi All,
 
I have been busy in the shop of late due to the self isolation and making some progress. But boy, there is no rushing with a model ship so things are going slowly. I have been detailing some more of the main deck and added some fairleads and mooring bits here and there. I have also tackled the railings on the foc'sle and aft deck which went rather well considering. I tried my hand a soldering and it went so-so. In the end, I found that they didn't need it, and all is well seated without. I had intended to solder them so I could paint the railings off the model. But they looked so good without solder that I decided to paint them in situ. Therefore I had to tape off the stanchions at the base. Now the tedious painting begins. One coat of primer and two top coats. It took 2 hours for the first coat. Yikes. As mentioned earlier, model ship building is not done at lighning speed...
 

I just finished up the labour intensive work on the deadeyes on the main deck. It was a multi-step process that invoved some "metalwork". Billing supplies the chain plates and a bunch of plastic deadeyes. I opted to poach a bunch of deadeyes from another kit so as to use the chainpates that were provided. It would not have been easy to use them together. Once the chainplates and deadeyes were married, I used a drop of glue to make them rigid so as to paint them easier.
 
Here's a bunch of pictures showing the process...
 

After just about snapping off the bowsprit (several times) and the dolphin striker (once), it was time to take some preventative measures. I decided to "splint" the offending spar so as to avoid some dfficult repairs later on. Here is my solution. Once the bowsprit has some standing rigging in place, I can dispense with the milk carton.
 

Finally, here are some photos of the gunwale stanchions and trim along with the attachment of the foc'sle deck. I didn't think I would bother with the trim and stanchions but other builders of this model added them so I had to try and keep up. I have finally found a re-purpose for the styrofoam trays our meat gets packaged in. They are perfect for holding tiny fittings while they get painted!
What with the foc'sle deck being added, I had to afix the bowsprit in place. This made the model instantly longer by 8.5" so it is alot more susceptible to damage. Yikes!
 
 

Well, work has been progressing albeit slowly. The decks are finally all caulked and several layers of varathane applied. This is what they look like now...

Thanks, but keep in mind that they are dry fitted for now. I simply wanted to get the various spars together to show some progress on the masts. I have Longridge's book which stipulates the rake of the masts. Thanks for looking in.
Peter

There are scant details on MSW of builds of this iconic Billing Boat kit, and periodically questions arise, often concerning inherited or partially built models requiring completion or restoration in the absence of plans or instructions, which in the case of Billing Boats were somewhat thin.
 
So, in the spirit of giving some images that may help, I post here my Norske Løve story.
 
I must have posted it somewhere before but can’t for the life of me remember where or when, but I do have my original log and photos.
A cautionary note, this is a model I made over forty years ago, so the standard of fittings, and the ravages of dust have taken its toll on the condition.
 
If I knew then what I know now I could certainly have made a better job of her but she remains a model for which I still have great affection, and I have resisted the temptation to upgrade her.
 
Those not familiar with the finer points of our art tend to be seriously impressed by the sight of her.
 
( Norske)  Løve Story
 
More years ago, than I care to remember, before my office was a den of computer stuff, and before the digital age, I had a yen to build a large scale wooden 18th century warship.
 
In those days it was either Billing Boats or Billing Boats, and as I browsed through their catalogue my eyes alighted on Norske Løve.
It was the image of the modeller putting the final touches to the model that grabbed my attention, I wanted to be that guy.

BB Cat cover
Yes, I still have that original catalogue, in those days I actually went to a model shop, can you believe it!
 
Pity I didn’t have the internet resource back then, but I did have the Longridge book and perhaps more importantly the Masting and rigging book by James Lees.
 
Given that the Norske Løve was launched in 1765 it immediately struck me that the round tops provided in the kit, were oddly out of period, more 17th century than 18th

The masts and tops were therefore scratch built to proportions given in the Lees book for ships of the correct period.
The other main area that gave me concern was the head. In common with many wooden kit models this is a weak area with a less than realistic rails set up.

Catalogue shot of the bows
 
These were therefore also scratch built.
 
I made other ‘modifications’ not necessarily in accordance with the plans, such as a skylight on the Poop and removeable skids to house boats which were not provided with the kit.
 
Billing at the time (and probably still are) were in the habit of providing some plastic fittings for their kits such as blocks and Deadeyes, decorations etc.
 
I seem to recall that the fittings kit was a separate purchase to the main build kit.

This is Billings catalogue shot of the completed model.
 
The build took me a couple of years, and my office resembled more of a joiners shop than an office. Drill stand and vice screwed to the desk top, wood turning model lathe and dremel permanently plugged in where now the printer and computer stuff reside.
 
Everything was covered in a fine film of dust, but boy how I enjoyed that build.
 
When completed the model sat in a lighted cabinet that filled one wall of the office and that’s how it stayed for some years.
With the arrival of computers and the need to use my office for its proper purpose, everything was changed. Away went the cabinet and all the modelling stuff.

1153
 Norske Løve then proudly sat uncovered on a long chest of drawers, where it resides to this day.
 
Strangely things have come full circle and in retirement my office once again resembles more of a workshop, but I don’t think the resident equipment would appreciate a return to the heavy sawdust days.
 
So here is the photo collection of my interpretation of Norske Løve,

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1127

1134

1138

1139
The head rails were scratch built using yellow pine, but there were several breakages before I got a satisfactory set. The Lower and Middle rails are mortised thro’ the head timbers, and the Main rail rebated into the head timbers.

04 02
I recall the exercise being long, slow, and frustrating.

1151
I particularly like the stern and Quarter galleries with their glazed lights, one of my pet dislikes with wooden kits are false windows or even worse stuck on windows, such as with the Mantua Le Superbe that lies forlornly in the loft.
 
This is one area where Billing have done a good job, there was very little tweaking to this area of the build.

1140

1170
The modified tops, scratch built to proportions given by James Lees. The plastic rigging blocks supplied by Billings were replaced by boxwood versions.

004(2)
 

1133
 

1152
The main difficulty with single planked hulls such as this is that there is little scope for cocking it up if you don’t want to hide it with paint.
I also have an aversion to stub guns so the lower ports are closed.

008(2)

010
The Poop was modified by the addition of a skylight, and the Ensign hand painted on cotton. The simplicity of the Danish flag lends itself to this method.
 

007(2)
I think the anchors were aftermarket purchases.
 
The Boats

002

005
Boats were not supplied so I had to create my own.

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The deck fittings are mostly removeable to assist cleaning which is evidently overdue when this photo was taken.

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Dust build up is clearly apparent here.

1135
 
I really prefer models out of cases, they have so much more impact, and 1:75 scale allows for reasonable cleaning access which in this case takes about three hours every few months or so.
 
I hope those who cross paths with this kit get some benefit from this vintage build.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.
22/03/21
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The continuation with :
- the complete nailing of the strakes,
- all the crosspieces in place (but not glued),
- the platform in front of the cabin created (knarr style, each board resting on a crossbeam),
- the bottom floor of the hull created (but not tinted or glued) in the form of removable gratings,
- the tinting of the interior only, the melter will come later on the whole once glued.😎
 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello All,
 
I am adding here a plastic revel kit as I promised Bruma to post it here. This was just 2 weekends work as I used wooden leftovers from another build. I had kit left in cellar somewhere and motivated by Bruma teasing that rigging 1:96 its fun.  and his  fantastic sails but also very beautiful Robs Wiederrich paper sails I thought I could rig here sometime in the distant future.
I basically scraped some plastic rails... as  looked toyish to me, and substituted by boxwood and alaskan cedar. Hatched covers etc...I improved inner rail with original pattern by inserting paper strips... I am terrible in painting so I left cabins original and installed fantastic wooden deck from his model company. I dont intent to continue in some time now, as I have hands full...i exhanged decoration with etched one, and reinforced lower masts properly and thats it. I hope to continue but in distant future for sure....
 
 
 
 
 

After just about snapping off the bowsprit (several times) and the dolphin striker (once), it was time to take some preventative measures. I decided to "splint" the offending spar so as to avoid some dfficult repairs later on. Here is my solution. Once the bowsprit has some standing rigging in place, I can dispense with the milk carton.
 

I have finally started work on the masting. Boy, there sure are alot of spars compared to my last model. The foremast went together with lots of trial and error. Mostly error. But once I established a system, the other two masts went together rather easily. All the masting is currently dry fitted so that they can be worked on. There is a ton of fittings that will be glued on piece by piece and careful planning is called for before the spars are stained and painted. I'm pretty excited about getting to this stage. Rigging is one of my favourite phases of the build. Once the spars are fitted, rapid progress can be made with the rigging. Here's a photo of the masts in place...